TWO men died when their light aircraft plummeted to earth near Builth Wells due to a structural failure of the wing caused by a “inadvertent” manoeuvre.

Pilot, Nick Jeffries, 54 and Scott Penlington, 25 from Holmes Chapel in Cheshire were airborne for less than 30 minutes when the silver Evektor EV-97 Eurostar crashed in a field at Cwmbach, near Builth Wells, in September 2016.

The pair were flying from Arclid Airfield in Cheshire to Swansea Airport, a flight that was supposed to take an hour and 20 minutes.

At about 9.46am they took off from Arclid Runway 20 and departed on a south?westerly course towards Swansea.

Weather conditions on the day of the accident were reported as fine, with light winds and occasional cloud.

The pilot was also qualified for his National Private Pilot’s Licence (NPPL) in June 2015 after 73 hours of training.

He bought the aeroplane in March 2015 and flew 20 hours in it as part of his training.

The day before the accident he completed a solo flight from Arclid Airfield to Oban, on the west coast of Scotland, and back, a round trip of some 500 nautical miles.

His flying instructor commented that the pilot was thorough, prepared well for his flights and was conservative in his flying.

Witnesses in the area of Cwmbach reported having first heard an aircraft engine making an unusual noise when the aircraft was flying straight and level, before seeing the nose dropping and the aircraft “plummeting” down and spinning. Another witness saw the aircraft “corkscrewing” downwards and noted that a wing had “folded back.”

Several of the witnesses also commented on hearing changes in the engine noise.

The report by the Air Accidents Investigations Branch, said: “The aircraft was seen cruising at an altitude of around 2,500 ft.

“At a later point it was seen to pitch nose-up and enter a steep spinning-type descent before striking the ground, resulting in fatal injuries to the pilot and passenger.

“The left wing had appeared to fold rearwards in the descent and this was attributed by the investigation to a structural

failure near the root of this wing, caused by upward bending of the wing beyond its design limits.

“No pre-existing material defect, or significant design issue, was found in the wing structure. The failure is most likely to have occurred as a result of an attempted recovery from an inadvertent manoeuvre inducing a structural overload, although the cause of the manoeuvre could not be identified.”

The report made a safety recommendation relating to the EV-97 Eurostar pitch trim mechanism.

One Direction singer Harry Styles who is from the same village was a close family friend of Nick Jeffries and had been taken by him on flying lessons.